British Inquiry Finds Army Responsible For Iraqi Beaten To Death

It took eight years to get there, but a British public inquiry
into the death of an innocent Iraqi civilian while detained in
British custody has finally declared what most knew: it was an
act of brutality that had been denied for too long.

Previously, only one army member had been held accountable for
the death of 26-year-old Baha Mousa, but Thursday's report
described the involved members of the armed forces as "shameful"
while also saying the whole incident
"cast a dark shadow" over the British army.

The condemnation represents a stalling British government
response to the atrocity. Tracing the timeline of events
surrounding the incident shows a number of attempts to deal with
it through gradual appeasement.

The BBC
reported that Mousa was found with over 90 individual wounds,
resulting from being severely beaten. Today's front page of
the Independent shows his bloodied and bruised face. But,
perhaps given the heavy presence of British troops in Iraq eight
years ago, the incident was held at arms length from the armed
forces.

As the Guardian reported
in 2004, the British Ministry of Defence paid compensation to
Mousa's family but failed to accept liability for his
death.

What followed was a series of
high court appeals by the victim's family, eventually leading
to one British soldier being found guilty of misconduct. He was
dismissed from the army and jailed for a year but escaped a
charge of manslaughter (or murder.)

Mousa's family then began a case against the Ministry of Defence,
resulting in the Ministry of Defence launching a public inquiry
into Mousa's death in 2008 intending to interview every soldier
who had witnessed the death.

Now the results of that inquiry have been published and certain
members of the armed forces have been called out for their
behavior. Whether this will be enough for Mousa's family is
doubtful. The report may have unveiled some ugly truths, but it
hasn't provided justice.